


Different From Every Other Time You Tried It

by Vashti (tvashti)



Series: Closet [4]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Oz Never Left, Post-Episode: s04e19 New Moon Rising, Secret Relationship, Secrets, Werewolf Oz, old fic, some proofreading we die liek mne, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 08:12:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17956868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvashti/pseuds/Vashti
Summary: There are rules.  Buffy and Oz agreed on them.  That doesn’t mean they have to like them.





	Different From Every Other Time You Tried It

**Author's Note:**

> FYI, this probably deserves a Teen Plus rating, if such a thing existed.
> 
> Written about 10 years ago; edited for clarity with the content largely unchanged.

“Oz.”

              “Buffy.”

              “You’re kinda naked.”

               “Huh.  Look at that.”

               “I’m trying not to!”

              “Oh.  Right.”

              “This is all your fault.”

              “Well it is…my time of the month.”

              “If you weren’t naked and in a cage I’d so go over there and hit me.  You.  I’d hit you.  With something stinging.  And painful.”

              “I thought we agreed not to talk kinky.”

_             “Oz!” _

              “We didn’t?”

              “Oooh!  Y’know, Willow never said you were this frustrating.”

              “But I’m pretty sure we agreed not to compare exes.”

              “I’m not comparing exes!  I’m just…comparing your…you-ness in the only previous relationship I was privy to.”

              “Huh.”

              “Yes.  And this is still all your fault.  You were the one who was all ‘Teh sex iz bad.’“

              “I’m pretty sure I never said that.”

              “I’m paraphrasing.”

              “You hate meme-speak more than I do.”

              “Which tells you how frustrated I am.   _ Now put on some clothes!” _

              “All you had to do was demand.”

              “Ugh!”

              “…Better?”

              “I don’t know.  Are you wearing clothes?”

              “Everything but a hat.”

              “It’s too warm for a hat.”

              “Then it’s copasetic.”

              Buffy peaked between her fingers just in case Oz was yanking her chain.  Considering he’d been the one to suggest the No-Sex-Until-It’s-Permanent policy, he could be rather saucy in his laconic way.  But, yes, he was wearing clothes: a black t-shirt that had seen blacker days, long cargo shorts that had seen less-frayed days and sneakers that had probably never been clean.  They were in his hand and his socks were bulging out of one of his cargo pockets, but Buffy was willing to let that slide. 

              And then, of course, there was the over-sized dog collar.  She saw Oz lift it over his head in her peripheral vision as she fumbled and patted herself down for the keys to his cage.  It was a prop, actually, meant to go over the head of an equally oversized dog but Oz was cool with the Art Department’s prop master, natch, so he didn’t ask too many questions when Oz borrowed it for a couple of nights every month.  Then again they were only a stone’s throw from the Hellmouth.  The guy probably assumed werewolf and not kinky sex at all.

              “Stop that.”

              “Stop what?”

              “Thinking semi-dirty thoughts instead of letting me out of here.”

              Right.  Keys.  And just like that her fingertips felt the bite of metal.  Buffy pulled them out of her breast-pocket – so tiny and non-functional that she’d barely thought about checking it – then tossed them to Oz.  He caught them one handed.  “Show off.”

              Smirking, or maybe smiling, he undid the lock and let himself out.  But didn’t walk out.  

              “Separation anxiety?”

              “You’re too close still.”

              “Oh.”

              “Yeah.  So if you could just…”

              “Um, yeah, totally.  Sorry.  You know playful arguing makes me forget the Two Feet rule.”

              “That you should try to keep the two you have on you at all times?”

_             “Oz!” _

              “What?”

              “It’s your rule!”

              “So…”  He made little shooing motions.  Rolling her eyes, Buffy backed up the requisite two feet.  “This is so not fair.  I always want to kiss you after you change.  You look so…”

              “Pathetic?” He turned to close the cage behind him.

              “Tired.  And in need of a good…friend.”

              “Except I want more than a good…friend after I change.”

              “Yeah.  You and your stupid rules.”

              Back to her, hand still on the cage door, Oz stopped moving.  He became very still and Oz-like.  “Do you really want to chuck the rules?”

              “Well not all of them. The post-change rules are probably for the best. The other ones, though… Yeah, sometimes.” she answered truthfully.  “But what we have is really…  It’s…  It’s different from anything I’ve ever done.  And if that’s because— I mean if you think the waiting for the sexing is the best way for it to—”

              “I do.”  He turned to look her in the eye, standing very straight and very rigid.  Very un-Oz-like.

              “Then what’s a few thousand cold showers, right?  It’s not like I don’t want to, and it’s not like you don’t want to.  You do want to, right?”

              “I do.”

              “Then we’re not, like, freakish or anything.  Except for the obvious, of course?”

              “Two twenty-somethings in a committed relationship who have agreed not to have sex until some un-figured out time in the future because they think that’s best?”

              “No, you! A Slayer and a werewolf.  Although I guess you’re right.”

              “Do you—”

              “Sometimes.  I mean cold showers are cold.  And Mom always did say something worth having is worth waiting for.  And….”  Buffy bit her lower lip.  “And this isn’t going to work, is it?”

              “It might.”

              “You really think?”

              Oz shook his head, slowly.  “Not forever.”

              “But it’s really good right now.  It’s different and it’s intense and it’s funny and it’s oddly non-pressure-y.”

              “I was going for non-pressure-y.”

              “Oz…you’re standing too close.”

              “Oh?”

              “Yes.  Back up, buddy.”

              He frowned but relented.

              “So this is just as hard for you as it is for me.”

              He smirked.  “Harder.”

              Buffy rolled her eyes and groaned.  “All right.  That’s it.  Serious grown up conversation over.   Out of the cave.”

              “Ladies first.”

              “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just want to watch my a— Aah!” Buffy jumped back into Oz. Who caught her bare arms, dropping his sneakers. 

              “Xander!” she shouted. Anything to ignore the fire spreading from Oz’s hands and his body into her skin. He let her go once it was clear that they were safe, but he didn’t step back.

              “What happened to Slayer sense?”

              “Slayer sense? Slayer sense! Slayer sense only works on big nasties.”

              “I could have been a big nasty.”

              “While that’s true in theory, apparently the ancients didn’t consider humans a threat to Slayer and so you’d have to walk just a bit more on the wild side for it to go off. Now what the heck are you doing here? And why are determined to scare me half to life!”

              “So even if I was, like, some evil murdering—”

              “I’ll show you evil murdering whatever-else-you-were-gonna say,” Buffy muttered. Oz wouldn’t move. Oz wouldn’t speak. But he was breathing on her neck. Not hot and breathy and creepy (or even sexy) but she could feel him blazing behind her, breathing on her….scenting her?

              Her adrenaline jumped. Oz took a deep breath.

              “So even if I was—”

              “Xander! Slayer sense is for bump in the nights. That’s it. Not humans. Now  _ why _ are you  _ here _ ?”

              “Oh!” He jumped a little, as if he had forgotten himself. “That. Breakfast. I was up, I couldn’t sleep…”

              “Had a fight with Anya?”

              Xander scratched the back of his head. “I wouldn’t call it that.”

              “A really big fight?”

              “Kinda the opposite of fight.”

              “Do we really want to know?”

              “Not unless you have a gallon of brain bleach handy.”

              “Got it. So….you came to, um, drown your sorrows in breakfasty goodness?”

              Xander perked again. “Yeah. I know Oz is always starving the morning after.”

              “Mmhmm.”

              Buffy shivered.

              “And you’ve been here all night doing the make-sure-he-doesn’t-snack-on-the-general-public thing. I figured, why not get in some morning grazing.”

              Buffy thought about it for a moment. About how she was in fact hungry, how it had been a long night, how Oz had driven them to the cave where his cage was hiding, and how all she really, really wanted him to do now was put his hands back on her. “Yeah. Breakfast sounds great. Tom’s is always great this time of almost-morning.”

              “All right!” Xander clapped his hands, rubbing them together. “I am all about the eating. My truck or your van?”

              “Uh…”

              “Truck,” Oz murmured behind her, flat calm and impersonal.

              “I haven’t seen you in, like, days Xan. How ‘bout I ride with you? Oz has to drive me back to the house anyway.”

              “Cool!”

              Buffy followed Xander out of the caves, but it was a few long minutes before Oz followed them and got into his van.

Fin[ite]


End file.
